Does anyone know (it's not been clear to me from what I've read) how they established a range to the satellite exactly? I get how the doppler measurement, along with an assumption of airplane speed can give you a heading. But I can't see that the doppler alone actually tells you anything about where the plane is. It's possible that the "hand-shake" between the plane and satellite is time tagged and if one knew pretty precisely how long it would take the plane to respond then one could calculate a two-way travel time and convert this to range. We do this in underwater acoustics all the time. But I've not heard anyone say explicitly that this is how it was done. Any thoughts?

You should listen to a recent interview of Wendy Kopp (founder of Teach for America) by Charlie Rose. She cites a recent Gallop poll that says essentially what you've said, that parents are largely responsible for the poor performance of America's schools. However when she gives the same poll to young teachers (who were at the very top of the class in some of the best schools in the country) finishing up their time with Teach for America, they all say the same thing - the problem is centered around poor teachers and poor leadership at the local level. She then talks about several schools that against all other odds turn out extraordinary kids because they are run by talented and dedicated teams of teachers with real leadership. Her point is that the problem is really not the kids or the parents, it is with schools and the problems are local, which may be difficult to address from the federal level.